THE OOLOGIST. 



105 



Large Sets of Great Horned Owl in a 

 Cold Berth. 



I have taken many sets of Great 

 Horned Owl but never until this spring 

 have I seen in this locality a set of 

 more than J. 



Un f'ebruary 25, 1904, I took a set of 

 X perfectly fresh, the thermometer did 

 not go above 4 degrees above zero any 

 time during the day and it had been 

 zero weather for a week previous . They 

 were about 50 feet up, big nest of sticks, 

 etc., and a few dry leaves which were 

 coated with snow and ice. The old bird 

 left nest when about half way up. On 

 going back on March 21st for second 

 set was surprised to get set of i Red-tail 

 Hawk in same nest that is very early 

 for Red-tail here. Have you ever known 

 of authentic set of }i Great Horned 

 Owl east of Mississippi? My ex- 

 perience has been that they are about 

 equally divided between i and k. 



The set of % were taken in McHenry 

 County, Illinois where I do most of 

 my collecting. 



C. M. Eldredge, 

 Chicago. 



At the Fair. 



An egg 12 inches long and 10 inches 

 in diameter with a shell nearly one- 

 quarter of an inch thick will be ex- 

 hibited among the treasures of natural 

 history by the government at the 

 world's fair, St. Louis. It is an egg 

 of the Mpyornis Maximus and was re- 

 cently purchased in Paris by Dr. E. 

 W. True of the Smithsonian institu- 

 tion. Specimens of these eggs are very 

 rare, having sold in London as high as 

 $1,000. 



Compared with other eggs some idea 

 of its immensity may be had. It will 

 hold the contents of six ostrich eggs, or 

 148 hen's eggs, or 30,000 humming 

 bird's eggs. Little is known of the 

 birds from which these eggs come. 



Most of the eggs are found in the 

 sands and swamps of southern parts of 

 Madagascar. One specimen was found 

 afloat on the ocean, after a hnrricane, 

 bobbing serenely up and down. 

 — R. F. Greene in Editorial Notes, 

 PhiV West, Vol. 26 No. S. 



Albinos. 



Mr. C. W. Frier, of Appleton City, 

 Mo., reports a set of English Sparrow, 

 containing 3 Albino eggs. 



Mr. Verdi Burtch of Branchport, 

 N. Y., has a set of five perfect albinos 

 of this bird. The editor secured a 

 very fine set of four Albino Bluebirds 

 from a pair of birds that had a first 

 set of normal blue eggs destroyed by 

 the untimely freeze April 20th, this 

 year. The set of Albinos were laid 

 May 8th to 11th in the same nest and 

 are a pure, glossy white. Would pass 

 for a large set of Downy Woodpeckers. 



Abnormalties. 



Mr. Verdi Burtch has two nicely 

 spotted sets of Wilson's Thrush. On 

 June 11th while out for a Yates county 

 tramp with Mr. C. F. Stone, the edi- 

 tor found a set of Indigo Bunting con- 

 taining two spotted eggs. One of these 

 was heavily ivreathed with cinnamon 

 spots at larger end. 



Review. 



Discovery of the Breeding Area of 

 Kirtland's Warbler. A pamphlet 

 issued by the University of Michigan, 

 being excerpt from Bull. Mich. Orni- 

 thological Club, Vol. V, pp. 3-13. 



It puts the Kirtland's Warbler mat- 

 ter in convenient form and the plates 

 are more distinct and show better de- 

 tail than they did in the Bulletin. 



Publications Received. 



American Ornithology, Vol. IV, No. 



Nature Study, Vol. XIII, No. 6. 

 Collector's Note Book, Vol. II, No. 



